Maybe we can get through the climate crisis without a global catastrophe, although that door is closing fast. And maybe we can cope with the huge loss of jobs caused by the revolution in robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) without a social and political calamity. But can we do both at the same time? We should know how to deal with the AI revolution because we have been down this road before. It's a bit different this time, of course, in the sense that the original industrial revolution in 1780-1850 created as many new jobs (in manufacturing) as it destroyed (in cottage industries and skilled trades).

It seems like the internet can't stop talking about AI and machine learning. Everything from practical applications to recent advancements and ethical discussions are becoming an almost daily occurrence. There's no doubt machine learning will have a huge impact on AI and in turn the IT industry as a whole. It's also pretty clear that this forward march of progress is coming very soon to a service desk near you. Despite suffering what may ultimately prove to be a minor setback in 2017, AI research continues to progress at a rapid pace, with huge names in the tech industry getting involved in nearly every sector of business.

The investment is part of an AI strategy laid out by President Emmanuel Macron at the elite College de France research institute in Paris, the French presidency said. The goal is to make better use of the French higher education system that trains computer engineers and mathematicians only to see them leave for jobs at top U.S. tech companies. Some of them have secured high-level positions at Alphabet, the parent company of search engine Google, and Facebook, which opened an AI research centre in Paris in 2015. Macron's AI plan was inspired by a government-commissioned report by Cedric Villani, the self-styled "Lady Gaga of Mathematics" and winner of the mathematics equivalent of the Nobel Prize. Villani, who is also a lawmaker in Macron's party, said in the report the brain drain to Silicon Valley companies showed the excellence of French schools.

A new study from PwC and the World Economic Forum examines how AI can help transform how society addresses climate change, delivers food and water security, reduces risk from disasters, protects biodiversity and bolsters human well-being. "Harnessing Artificial Intelligence for the Earth", examines how AI can be put to work for the planet's greatest environmental challenges. The study is the latest in a series of reports from the World Economic Forum's Fourth Industrial Revolution for the Earth initiative, designed to accelerate progress of the development and use of emerging technology to benefit environmental challenges. The report focuses on the use of AI in the context of six critical global challenges: climate change; biodiversity and conservation; healthy oceans; water security; clean air; weather and disaster resilience. The report warns that, although AI presents transformative opportunities to address the Earth's environmental challenge, if left unguided it also has the capability to accelerate the environment's degradation.